Admittedly, my new intro video for 2021 is a bit late, but it’s been a busy year keeping the businesses during the ongoing pandemic! But here it is.

I’ve not done a proper introduction video before despite known darn well that I should do one. After all, video content gets considerably more attention online than still images or text alone.

This one was fairly quick to put together. Thankfully I have the majority of all my old video files dating back years so finding footage for the historical clip was easy. It was just as easy to find new footage too, given the number of remote demos I’ve presented in the last year.

Finally was the voiceover script.

Personally, I’m uncomfortable blowing my own trumpet so I found this part quite difficult to write. It was recorded using a fairly inexpensive USB mic and then improved in Adobe Audition and then added into the video edit in Adobe Premiere Pro. The transcript is below the video.

My name is Martin Saban-Smith. I am a member of the Register of Professional Turners working out of workshops based to the rear of my family garden centre in the village of Four Marks, in Hampshire in the south of England. We are to be in countryside, just outside the South Downs National Park.

Most of my turning is shared on social media with the workshop originally being in our garage at home. After a while, I later took over a building on the garden centre where I converted the potting shed into a turning studio and teaching environment.

In 2015, I started developing a finishing wax that quickly expanded to become the popular Hampshire Sheen range of products that are now shipped all over the UK, Europe, South Africa, the USA and Canada. Most of the products are unique to the company and made by hand right here at the workshops.

During the COVID pandemic, I teamed up with well known turner Les Thorne and together we started a new business called The Woodturning Shop. We took over two further buildings when Les moved his workshop and equipment to the garden centre. With a lot of help, we built a small retail shop, two new workshops and developed my original teaching room into a more professional space.

My lathe has now moved into a dedicated multimedia studio where Les and I present remote demonstrations and teaching and record videos for social media consumption. It is fully equipped with a Vicmarc lathe, Sorby Pro Edge, all the usual tools, a 7 cameras media set-up and plenty of other tech.

My own work tends to be more creative, expressive and more colourful than functional, although I do enjoy mixing the form and figure of pieces with a certain amount of functionality. Wood, to me is a canvas my artistic side can be expressed upon. There is always something you can do to make even the most featureless piece of wood stand out from the rest.

Being able to share what I do and how I do it with my social media followers and clubs in a demonstration, remotely or in person, as well passing on my knowledge to students here is a tremendous privilege and an absolute joy.

Find More:
My website: https://www.msabansmith.com.88-208-198-193.plesk.page
The Woodturning Shop: https://www.thewoodturningshop.com
Hampshire Sheen: https://www.hampshiresheen.com
Woodturning360: https://www.woodturning360.com
Funnel Club: https://www.woodturnersfunnelclub.com

Social Media:
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/msabansmithwoodturning
https://www.youtube.com/hampshiresheen
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/msabansmith
https://www.facebook.com/thewoodturningshop
https://www.facebook.com/hampshiresheen
https://www.facebook.com/woodturning360
https://www.facebook.com/woodturnersfunnelclub
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/msabansmith
https://www.instagram.com/thewoodturningshop
https://www.instagram.com/hampshiresheen